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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576858">Heat Daze</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaEmber/pseuds/KivaEmber'>KivaEmber</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Deadly Songbird [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Idols, Established Relationship, Everything is the same as canon except for two things, M/M, Secret Relationship, akechi is an idol instead of a detective prince, akira arrives in tokyo a whole month early</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:16:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,372</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576858</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaEmber/pseuds/KivaEmber</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I want to kill something,” was the first thing out of Akechi's mouth, after he snatched two of the shopping bags out of Akira’s hands without so much as a <i>‘do you need help with those’.</i></p><p>or; </p><p>Akira thinks Akechi's looking a bit burnt out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Deadly Songbird [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852117</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>380</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Heat Daze</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The heatwave that struck Tokyo left Akira feeling uncomfortably sticky and lethargic. However, his plans to melt into a comatose state that day were foiled when Boss chased him out of his attic and into the relentless heat for some errands. Many of them were minor and could be done locally, but one required a quick train ride to Shibuya, as one of the plug sockets in the cafe had blown and required an easy replacement of some component or other. </p><p>Morgana, traitor that he was, opted to stay back in the cafe where the fan was, so Akira was on his lonesome. Which was probably for the best, as the crowds were unusually thick and busy in Shibuya station when he arrived; in this heat most people tended to congregate where the air conditioning was concentrated, but a lot of them seemed eager to get up to station square. The small crowd was disproportionately high school girls too, which was… </p><p>Hm. </p><p>Akira, distracted from his quest, decided to check it out. He let the flow of the crowd take him upwards, valiantly ignoring the heat now making his shirt stick to his back, and quickly found out that there was an <em> event </em> happening. An impromptu one by the looks of it, the crowd almost blocking the foot traffic to and from the underground station with one Akechi Goro, Rising Idol, in the thick of it all.</p><p><em> oh ho, </em> Akira thought, pushing himself onto his tiptoes to see better. It was Akechi, presumably his harried manager, and two other guys Akira guessed to be bodyguards or something like it, judging by the suits. Understandable, as the crowd was looking pretty fanatic, the flash and pop of camera phones and near unintelligible shouts as adoring fans begged for validation and acknowledgement. </p><p>Akechi took everything in stride. Despite the heat, he didn’t look sweaty (black magic?), dressed in his ‘casual wear’ of a light shirt and striped tie with beige trousers - he looked like a teenager playing as a mini-adult, which cultivated an endearing air about him. Akechi’s expression was mildly flustered but very affable and friendly, despite the intimidating crowd of jostling fans, and he reminded Akira of a little puppy that hadn’t quite grown into its lanky limbs just yet. A baby fawn. Doe-eyed and a little ditzy and friendly and god. It was <em> weird. </em></p><p>“Akechi-kun! Akechi-kun! Please, please, can we have a photo together~”</p><p>“I love you, Akechi-kun! Please go out with meee~!”</p><p>“I can’t wait for your event next week, ‘kechi-kun!”</p><p>“Ahaha…” Akechi’s sheepish laughter was audible even from Akira’s position at the rear of the flash crowd, “Thank you, everyone, for your support! It really makes me happy! But... I really can't stay! My poor manager, ah, he’s looking a little flustered!”</p><p>“We’re almost late for a very important meeting!” said manager quickly confirmed.</p><p>“But don’t worry!” Akechi said brightly to the chorus of ‘awwws’ that rose from the crowd, clapping his hands together in a picture of innocent happiness, “There will be plenty of opportunity next week at Sunshine City, where I’ll be there to-”</p><p>“Akechi-kun!” the manager scolded, in what Akira quickly saw to be performative, “That was a secret!”</p><p>Akechi gasped, looking so flustered at his slip up, while the gathered fans quickly assured him that <em> oh, they’ll keep it a secret, ‘kechi-kun, so what was that about Sunshine City-? </em> </p><p>It was hard to believe that two days ago Akira witnessed this same person beat the shit out of a vending machine with a baseball bat because it stole his change. They had almost gotten caught by a passing policeman from all the ruckus, and the pair of them had been chased through two alleyways before they scaled a fence and managed a successful escape, laughing from adrenaline and the shock of near capture, shoving and blaming each other for dropping half of their ill-gained spoils. </p><p><em> That </em> Akechi had been rough, foul-mouthed, and terrifyingly efficient at being violent. <em> That </em> Akechi was an entirely different beast to <em> this </em> one, who looked like he couldn’t even say ‘shit’ without turning bright red in mortification. </p><p>By sheer chance, their gazes met over the head of the crowd. </p><p>Akechi didn’t visibly react except to blink rapidly. Akira pulled a silly face at him before walking away, leaving the crowd behind. </p><p>He was here for a reason, after all, and Akechi seemed busy as it was. </p><hr/><p>Two hours later, after Akira was wrapping up the last of his errands and was thinking of grabbing a Big Bang Burger to go, Crow ambushed him by the alleyway next to it. </p><p>“I want to kill something,” was the first thing out of Crow’s mouth, after he snatched two of the shopping bags out of Akira’s hands without so much as a ‘<em>do you need help with those’. </em> His black flu mask hid his expression, but the deep furrowed brow and his narrowed eyes said he was snarling, “Fucking <em> Sunshine City.</em>”</p><p>“Another handshake event?” Akira asked, not bothering to hide a smirk when Crow let out a strangled noise of suppressed rage, “Maybe fake an illness to get out of it?”</p><p>“I <em> can’t</em>,” Crow sighed, resting his stolen shopping bags in the crook of his elbow, “The hell is this stuff?”</p><p>“Boss’s groceries and, uh, plug socket stuff. It’s blown.”</p><p>“Oh, I can fix that,” Crow said easily, and he jerked his chin towards Big Bang Burger, “Let’s get some to go and get to Leblanc.”</p><p>It was strange how easily Akira adjusted to Crow commandeering his time, but he rolled with it, too lethargic to kick up a fuss. The sun had crawled even higher into the sky, the air thick with humidity. Whatever black magic Akechi Goro had used to remain sweat free for his fans had worn off, as beneath his dark hoodie, flu mask and the bright red scarf Akira bought him last week, Crow was clearly sweating buckets, his hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks. </p><p>“Your mascara’s running a little in the corner,” Akira said when they stepped into the air conditioned fast food joint. </p><p>“Fuck’s sake,” Crow said tiredly. He didn’t move to fix it. </p><p>Sensing Crow’s tolerance for human interaction was in the gutters, Akira handled their order to the equally tired but valiantly chirpy employee. Ten minutes later they were walking out with Akira holding the takeout bag and Crow a cold bottle of water that came with it. </p><p>His boyfriend pressed the bottle against his forehead, blowing out a harsh exhale. </p><p>“You okay?” Akira asked, because Crow looked more worn than usual, “You don’t look too good.”</p><p>“Headache,” Crow muttered, “Tired. Annoyed. Homicidal. Take your pick.” </p><p>Akira’s concern spiked, “You want to take a nap when we get to Leblanc?”</p><p>Crow didn’t immediately reply. He just kept pace with Akira towards the station, cold bottle pressed against his forehead, the shopping bags swinging from his elbow and gaze fixed at some point beyond what Akira could see. From what little Akira could see past his flu mask and the hood pulled over his head, Crow looked <em> ill. </em> His face was sickly pale, dark bruises under his eyes stark, and his makeup uncharacteristically smudged <em> . </em>He looked like someone had given him the beginnings of two black eyes.</p><p>“Yeah,” Crow finally said as they reached the steps leading into Shibuya Underground, “I want a nap.” </p><p>“Okay,” Akira said easily, “You can take my bed. Boss won’t mind.”</p><p>“Won’t Morgana?”</p><p>“Mona can deal with it,” Akira said. While he knew the not-cat disliked Crow because- well, actually, Akira wasn’t completely sure why Mona disliked him outside of petty jealousy, but whatever the reason, Mona wasn’t <em> cruel. </em> Just one look at Crow would convince anyone he needed, like, a week, minimum, to sleep and mentally recover.</p><p>“Mm,” Crow let the matter drop. </p><p>The rest of the journey was done in companionable silence. Crow’s eyes kept drooping more and more shut the closer they got to Leblanc, until it was a miracle he was keeping upright and walking by the time they got there. Akira tried to keep his concerned glances to a minimum. Crow got pissy if he thought someone was pitying him. </p><p>“Ah, I wondered what was keeping you,” Sojiro said when they both walked inside, a blast of sticky, hot air following them into the cafe before the door shut, “Bumped into each other?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Akira said, “Though Crow’s just going to take a nap in my room.” </p><p>Sojiro glanced over at Crow, who was avoiding looking at anyone by very carefully putting his shopping bags on the counter. Sojiro saw the same thing as Akira, though - the pallor, the eyebags - and just waved a hand and a mutter of; “Yeah, sure. Just don’t make a mess of the place.” </p><p>They trudged upstairs, after Akira promised to come straight back down to help wash the dishes once he got Crow into bed. Crow bitched a little <em> (“I don’t need you to </em> <em>tuck me in,</em> <em> Kurusu!”)</em>, but Akira ignored him because he heard the unsaid appreciation underneath. He was so troublesome, his boyfriend, verbally shunning fussing and spoiling, but secretly craving it with such emotional starvation it worried him a little. That sort of, eager for positive interaction, can be so easily taken advantage of. </p><p>“Moooona~” Akira cooed once they reached his attic room, swooping over to his bed and quickly bundling his drowsy not-cat into his arms, “You’re getting kicked out of bed.”</p><p>“W-Wha- where did <em> he </em> come from?!” Mona squawked indignantly, too groggy with sleep to put up a proper protest as Crow beelined for the bed in a zombie-like daze, “I thought you went <em> grocery shopping</em>!”</p><p>Akira hummed vaguely - Crow overlooked a lot of his oddities, but talking to his cat like he was carrying a conversation was probably a bit too weird for him, “I found a stray crying for some love and affection near Big Bang Burger,” he began teasingly, “So I took him home.”</p><p>“Fuck off,” Crow rasped, and promptly collapsed face down on Akira’s bed. </p><p>The crates holding up the mattress made an angry noise of protest at the sudden drop in weight, but they didn’t collapse, luckily. Akira and Mona stared at Crow for a good long minute, and realised that, nope, Crow wasn’t going to adjust himself. His boyfriend was half on, half off the bed, his legs dangling off the side and his face (flu-mask still in place), pressed against the mattress, his arms loose at his side. The only sign of life was the slow rise of his shoulders indicating breathing.</p><p>“Did he die?” Mona asked in morbid curiosity. </p><p>“No, he’s just… very tired,” Akira whispered, and set the not-cat down.</p><p>“Crow,” he said, walking over to his possibly deceased boyfriend, “C’mon, take your mask off at least. You’re gonna suffocate.”</p><p>“Mngh.” </p><p>After a bit of prodding, literally, and grabbing Crow’s hoodie and trying to yank it off him, he managed to get Crow to strip down to his boxers. Making a mental note to wash those sheets later, Akira folded his boyfriend’s clothes up neatly on the sofa. It was all weirdly domestic, and when Akira turned back to Crow, he found him already deep asleep, curled up into a little ball with his hands tucked close to his face. Even when unconscious Crow frowned. </p><p>“I wonder what he does to be all grouchy and exhausted all the time,” Mona mused, having hopped up onto the desk to better stare at their guest, “I thought he just stood around looking pretty on TV.”</p><p>“Idol work is… more intense than that,” Akira said diplomatically, unsure if he wanted to get into with Mona right now. </p><p>An abrupt, loud trill made them jump, and Crow mumbled quietly, close to rousing. Frantically, Akira shook down his boyfriend’s clothes, ruining the neat folding, until a buzzing phone tipped out. Several messages must have come in quick succession, from the looks of it. </p><p>“I guess this is his work phone,” Akira muttered, fumbling with what little he could access through the lockscreen to turn it on silent. He tried not to peek, but the message notification on the lockscreen said <em> “M.S: be done by tonight. I’m no longer tolerating your...” </em></p><p>“MS…?” Akira frowned.</p><p>“What is it?” Mona asked. </p><p>Guiltily, Akira tried to expand the notification box, since the message mildly concerned him. He only expanded it enough for the rest of that single message to finish: <em> “I’m no longer tolerating your excuses about the delays. Get your act together.” </em> </p><p>Akira’s frown grew more pronounced. Who the hell was MS? This seemed like a harsh tone to take with someone… </p><p>“Some jerk called MS,” Akira mumbled, “Maybe it’s his manager.”</p><p>If so, it explained why Crow looked like the walking dead. Maybe he should try to talk to him about it when he woke up. </p><p>Akira turned the phone screen off and tucked it back into Crow’s hoodie, pushing the issue on the backburner. He’ll have to approach it delicately, since Crow, despite his venomous and frequent complaints about his crammed timetable and forced social interaction, got aggressively defensive over his heavy workload. He never fully explained what he did to look so overworked, and any too-firm pushing on the issue had him clamming up.</p><p>He looked over at his boyfriend, still curled up in a tiny, protective ball. He was still frowning, his eyebrows furrowed like he was having a bad dream. </p><p>“You really know how to pick ‘em, huh, Joker?” Mona said.</p><p>“Yeah, I really do,” Akira said with wry fondness, “C’mon. Let’s leave him to sleep.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah.”  </p><p>For now, all Akira could do was be a port in a storm for him. Slowly, he’ll get the story out of Crow, and maybe the solution to his problems was as simple as doing a change of hearts on whatever adult was crushing him beneath the weight of social expectations. He was sure the rest of the Phantom Thieves would be happy to help Crow out if it turned out his manager was abusive or overbearing. </p><p>After all, Crow was practically an honorary Phantom Thief (even if he didn’t know it), and Phantom Thieves looked after their own.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For those curious: it's not unusual for Sunshine City in Ikebukuro to have idol meet-and-greets, handshake events and small concerts. Sometimes these are unofficial, or not widely advertised beyond a small group of fans for that idol, but it seems like a location Akechi would have a meet-and-greet during the rising peak of his career.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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